One Last Time
by halteddreams
Summary: OotP spoilers HHr. Harry is about to go into his last battle, but not without a goodbye to a certain brown-eyed girl. Please RR.


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**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters of HP, J.K. Rowling does. I do however, own the plot.  
  
**Author's Notes:** Inspired by the latest HP movie. No H/Hr fan can deny there were a lot of H/H moments, made me feel so fluffy and in the H/H mood, this is the result.  
  
**Rating:** I was thinking PG-13, perhaps minor R? I really don't know.  
  
**Summary:** HHR. Harry has to go into his last battle, but not without a goodbye.

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June 1997 

This was it.  
  
The moment he had been waiting for and dreading since he had known about the prophecy.  
  
He had trained, he had practiced, and he knew as much as he could, but still he felt like that wasn't enough.  
  
How much could you possibility do to feel ready? Because everybody said he was ready, but himself.  
  
Tonight would be his last night at Hogwarts, with any luck not his last time seeing Hogwarts.  
  
He had to say his goodbyes tonight. But there was only one person who he knew it would be hard to say goodbye to.  
  
Hermione.  
  
How much she has become to him since the beginning of their school days. She was still brilliantly smart, but unbelievable enough, not as bossy as she once had been. She had grown mentally and emotionally like they all had, but also physically. Physically had made her grown into a slender curvy woman with caramel eyes and her hair was less bushy, now it was softer and smoother to the touch.  
  
These last two years he never had the guts to tell her this, but tonight was different. It might be his last night in her presence, and he didn't want no regrets.  
  
He looked everywhere for her, in her Head Girl quarters, in the regular 6th Year Girls dormitory (which wasn't easy because boys weren't allowed in the girl's dorms), in the common room, library, and out by the lake. But there was one place he didn't look.  
  
Astronomy Tower. It was unlikely she would be up there, but knowing Hermione, she probably wanted to be alone.  
  
He climbed up the steps and slowly opened the door and peered in.  
  
There she was, sitting on the ledge, seemingly gazing out.  
  
He slowly made his way towards her and sat down beside her.  
  
"Hermione?" he asked gently.  
  
She turned to him slowly, her sad deep brown eyes paining him deeply. "You're leaving aren't you? Gosh, Harry, you're so easy to read, like a open book. I already knew since this morning, you didn't seem yourself."  
  
"Oh Hermione..." he whispered as she turned away from him, burying her face in her knees.  
  
He awkwardly wrapped his arms around her small frame, pulling her towards his chest, burying his face in her hair.  
  
"I'm sorry, did you honestly think I wouldn't say goodbye to my favorite girl?" he muffled into her hair.  
  
But despite this she managed to hear him.  
  
She turned towards him, causing him to drop his grip on her.  
  
"For a moment, I don't know, I'm so confused. I wish you didn't have to go but I know you have to," she said sadly, looking down at her hands as teardrops formed in her sad eyes, she looked up at him, tears flooding her view of him that he became blurry, "It's not fair!"  
  
"Oh Hermione," he said, not knowing what else to do but pull her into his embrace, letting her cry her eyes out on his shoulder, soaking his shirt.  
  
Harry never had been one to comfort people simply because all his life he wasn't used to human contact. Not until he met her, he fondly remembered every time they see each other after their vacations she would hug him briefly and peck his cheek. He never thought much of it, after all she was just _Hermione_. But Hermione had always shown him human contact by all friendly means, sometimes when he was feeling down, she take hold of his hand and caress it, at first he thought, well hoped that maybe she--but no, she said it was something her mother used to do with her when she was down.  
  
He unsurely ran soothing circles on her back and his other hand stroked her soft hair, feeling her shoulders bop from her crying. Eventually her cries became softer and her tears reduced until no more could be shed. Still in his embrace, she looked looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot red.  
  
She blushed and buried her face back in his shoulder. "Sorry about your shirt, Harry."  
  
"No, it's alright, it doesn't matter," he whispered back, pulling her tightly to him, never wanting to let this girl go.  
  
No, woman.  
  
Their traces of childhood and naive thoughts were no more, this war had caused them to grow up more faster, it felt weird to think of Hermione as a woman, but she was, she was seventeen which was legal in their world and only resembled the child she once had been.  
  
Her arms gripped his back which until now he noticed.   
  
"I wish I could go with you," she murmured against the skin of his skin, causing a shiver to go up his spine.   
  
"I do too, you know much more hexes and curses and counter-curses than I, we would be quite the pair, but I wouldn't want to put you in danger," he admitted.  
  
She growled in her throat. "How many tells must Ron and I tell you? All three of us are in this together, the only reason why we resigned ourselves not to be by your side was because...Dumbledore said only you. I admire and respect Dumbledore's decisions in the past, Harry, but this is by far the most craziest thing yet! I don't think he realizes how hard it will be for Ron and me to just sit here and wait while our best friend goes to endanger his life once more!"  
  
He couldn't help but chuckle for a moment. Hermione rarely got angry and he could tell this had affected her deeply.  
  
"Hermione, I've faced him plently times before without Ron or you," he protested. "Our First Year, Second Year, every year it always just him and I!"  
  
Hermione looked up at him as if he had slapped her in the face. "Really? It was just _you _who got passed the chess piece set in our First Year? And it just _you _in our Second Year who went down to the Chamber of Secrets. And just _you_ in our Third Year who was in the Shrieking Shack, going back through time, flying on Buckbeck. Our fourth year _you_ alone managed to learn the 'Accio' charm. Our Fifth Year none of us went down to the Department with _you_, huh? Yes Harry, it was just _you_, all alone without any help!"  
  
She turned away from him, burying her face in her hands.  
  
He moved to embrace her once more, but she flinched and hissed at his touch.  
  
"Hermione," he gritted out angrily. "I'm sorry that didn't come out right. I meant, it had always been Voldemort and me at the end, yes Ron and you helped me along the way, but have you ever faced him like I have?!"  
  
She flinched at the anger in his voice. She turned towards him.  
  
"Why are you always mad at everybody?" she cried out.  
  
Harry bit in lip in frustration. "Because you don't understand Hermione! You don't know what it's like! You've never looked into his sick and twisted eyes and by Merlin I hope you never do! You don't know the awful things he could do to you. Especially muggleborn witches, you'll throw up if you knew."  
  
She said nothing just stared blankly at the floor, gasping for air through her tears.  
  
"Harry...don't you understand? I--_Love you_," she wheezed out, gasping through her tears and sobs.  
  
"Hermione--"  
  
But she leaned over and placed her lips over his, kissing him deeply and with her love, wrapping her arms around his neck.  
  
It seemed like his mind went on shutdown and his body's switch turned on.  
  
Female. Kissing him deeply. Who gives a damn if it's his best friend, the girl who he secretly knows his other friend has a crush on.  
  
He kissed her back with just as much fire and passion, throwing all his frustration in that one kiss, holding her tightly to him, pulling her into his lap, letting his selfish mind to let his giddy hands roam over her cloaked body, taking in delight of discovering the curves he knew she had developed.  
  
She pushed him on his back, she landed softly on top of him, and he wrapped his arms around her back, still sucking on her sweet lips.  
  
_Oh Gods Hermione...._  
  
He pulled back for air then dipped his head down to place soft wet kisses along her jawline and her neckline and her exposed creamy collarbone.  
  
She moaned, whispering his name in a chant.  
  
This surely couldn't be happening.  
  
Not in a million years and surely not now.  
  
But wasn't it evitable that eventually both the man whom he considered like a brother and him would fall for the same girl? How could they not? She had qualities that they both liked and loved, both for different reasons.  
  
He was slightly unaware that he was tugging at the buttons of her uniform, trying to expose more of her creamy skin.  
  
He waited for a protest to sound on her lips, to push him away like he was the most disgusting thing ever, trying to undo her blouse, but she did neither, all she did was close her eyes and breathed raggedly.  
  
He cupped her breasts through her blouse and at this moment he knew in his heart that Hermione was willing to anything and everything with him without a protest.  
  
He felt the heat grow within him, thinking of all the naughty things they could do on this floor.  
  
This thought thrilled him and saddened him at the same time.  
  
As much as his teenage body wanted him to, he couldn't take advantage of his friend like that. Could not make precious love to her then leave the next morning, not knowing if he going to die or not, knowing that if he did, he would Hermione be broken hearted.  
  
"Harry?" she whispered softly, realizing his hands had left her body as did his lips. "What's wrong?"  
  
Many insecurities spread through her mind through wildfire...maybe he didn't think of her like that, maybe she was fat, maybe she was too ugly, maybe he loved that other girl, Cho Chang, after all they had been dating briefly. Maybe he just didn't want her.  
  
Nobody wanted her.  
  
Before she could get off him, he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder.  
  
"Hermione, it's not that I don't want to, but I can't, it would be unbearable for me to make love to you, and in agony just leave you," he whispered.  
  
She smiled softly, he did want her.  
  
"But I want to--" she whispered.   
  
Never in a million years did she think Harry and her would be in such a situation. She had always treasured the fact that unlike the other girls in her class, she managed to have kept herself pure and untouched. She had even made vows to wait until marriage, her parents had bought her a 'Promise' ring so to speak, saying that she would be pure until marriage. But Hermione realized that there were more important things than keeping ones virginity, like giving ones self fully to someone you loved.  
  
"But I understand," she said weakly, glancing down at the ring on her right hand.  
  
He smiled softly at her, kissing her gently. "Do you think I'm crazy?"  
  
She shook her head, "No, I just think it's sweet how considerate you are."  
  
He kissed her nose, breathing deeply. "It just takes a moment to you know, and no offense but you against me isn't helping."  
  
She blushed deeply, knowing what he was refering to and rolled over beside him, blushing. "Sorry."  
  
"I'm sorry for yelling at you. I never meant to say those things, will you be here when I come back? Despite what I become?" he whispered softly to her, his emerald eyes in pain.  
  
Pain of ever not knowing love.  
  
She nodded. "Yes."  
  
"Promise me something?" he said softly, throwing a arm around her waist.  
  
"Anything," she whispered.  
  
"If--if I don't come back, let Ron take care of you, if that happens, it's alright with me," he said softly.  
  
She said nothing.  
  
"Oh, and I love you too, Hermione."

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**Author's Notes:** I was debating if they should have done something, but heh, I'm evil. Sorry for the typos, I'm not a English teacher. Every time I try to get a beta, they just run off. Lol. 


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